With the Southwest Corridor light-rail project facing a make-or-break deadline, a freight train company has rejected the latest proposal to clear space for the transit line in Minneapolis' Kenilworth recreation corridor.
Thursday's refusal by Twin Cities & Western to reroute its freight trains in St. Louis Park came as metro county officials who bankroll transit projects sent a letter to Southwest Corridor planners threatening to withhold funding if the conflict over the route isn't resolved by June 30.
At $1.5 billion, the Southwest Corridor light-rail line is the biggest transit project in the Twin Cities.
The counties told Southwest Corridor planners that cities along the proposed route from Eden Prairie to Minneapolis must soon agree on the project or risk losing money to the next light-rail project in line. TC&W President Mark Wegner said an engineer he hired concluded that the latest plan for rerouting his freight in St. Louis Park is "neither efficient, safe nor cost-effective" when compared to its current route in the Kenilworth corridor.
"The operating conditions … would be detrimental in every respect to current and future operating conditions for the TC&W," the engineer wrote. The proposed route includes reverse curves and changing elevations that increase chances of trains buckling, the report said.
"It doesn't make sense for us to accept that," Wegner said. "Suppose we have a derailment? Good luck getting anyone to pay for that."
No cost difference seen
The latest St. Louis Park reroute idea emerged during a moratorium on the project last fall. Gov. Mark Dayton supported the pause to address criticism of the Southwest Corridor plans after then-Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak cast the lone no vote on a plan to keep the freight line in Kenilworth and put tracks in tunnels nearby. That idea came under fire from the city and Kenilworth residents, who wanted the freight trains moved and questioned the tunnels' potential effects on city lakes.
A previous St. Louis Park reroute acceptable to TC&W involved two-story berms that many St. Louis Park residents opposed. A panel of metro leaders also balked at the idea.